How many state senators are live-tweeting lunch? Can you track down your rep on Snapchat? We don’t have answers to those questions, specifically, but a new survey attempted to determine how widespread the use of social media and email is in the halls of the Statehouse.
Organized by the Vermont Technology Working Group, the survey asked all 180 state legislators what technology they use to keep in touch with constituents. Only 42 responded. But it’s a start toward understanding which platforms are popular among lawmakers. A few key points:
- Ninety-eight percent of lawmakers use email in their capacity as elected officials. (The one legislator who said he/she doesn’t use email is probably not reading this blog post.)
- Of those, 36 percent said they use email “less than monthly.”
- Sixty-nine percent of legislators said they use social media; 31 percent said they don’t.
- The city effect: 73 percent of Chittenden County legislators are on social media. In the rest of the state, 60 percent said yes.
- Which platform is most effective for speaking with constituents? Facebook and email tied for the lead, with 36 percent each. Fourteen percent of legislators picked Front Porch Forum as their top social media platform, and Twitter got 5 percent.
- Email is more popular for connecting with media, with two thirds of lawmakers picking that method to communicate with the press.
Regrettably, the survey did not ask how many have tweeted photos of their junk. Sorry, Carlos Danger.
Click here to see the full survey rundown.
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So what does this really tell us? Only 42 of 180 responded and 69% of those said they use social media. Thus, we know 18 legislators use social media or 10% of all legislators. And a share of those are using Front Porch Forum. Using percentages to report out this survey conveys basically nothing. The good news is that the Vermont legislature is still not going full steam ahead into social media.
In my district I have 1 senator and 2 representatives. for a few years I have sent e-mails to all three, and 2 have never responded. I called those 2 asked why they never replied to me. One said “I don’t do e-mail, I do phone”. The other said she never has the time to keep up with the e-mails and respond timely. These 2 were elected so long ago that the internet didn’t even exist. My third representative sent me a reply every time I sent an e-mail, usually right from the statehouse the same day. Sadly, he recently died. E-mail and social media sites can really get people involved in with what happens in Montpelier and promote democracy. I bet a lot of the 138 representatives that didn’t respond are in the same category as my representatives. The words e-mail and social media scared off the ones that don’t use them.